SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, July 22, 2019 (Gephardt Daily) — Utah will receive $1,422,915.91 as part of the Equifax data breach settlement, it was announced Monday.
A news release from the Utah Attorney General announced a historic $600 million nationwide settlement with Equifax concerning the 2017 Equifax data breach affecting more than 147 million Americans, and more than 1.2 million Utahns.
A total of 50 state attorneys general and the attorneys general of Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. are included in the settlement, the news release said.
“While this is a historical settlement in terms of amount and conditions required, it is quite appropriate for the severity of the conduct,” Utah Attorney General Sean D. Reyes said in the prepared statement.
“I’m pleased Equifax will take serious steps to protect and reimburse consumers, even if it comes only after one of the worst lapses of consumer data protection in our history. I urge Utah consumers affected by the breach to take advantage of Equifax’s agreement to pay for credit monitoring, identity theft protection and other measures and reimbursements.”
The terms of the multistate attorney general settlement are as follows:
- Equifax will offer affected consumers free credit monitoring services for 10 years
- Equifax will provide free Identity Theft Restoration services to all affected consumers
- Equifax will strengthen its data security practices to protect against another breach
- Equifax will take several steps to assist consumers with understanding their credit report, with disputing inaccurate entries on their credit report, including credit report entries that are the result of identity theft, who have become the victim of identity theft or who are concerned about becoming the victim of identity theft, and including assisting active-duty military members and veterans and their families with credit report issues unique to military members.
- Equifax will pay $300 million into a settlement fund for the benefit of affected consumers, with the possibility of paying up to an additional $125 million into the settlement fund, for a total of $425 million
- Equifax will pay $175 million to the states, $1,422,915.91 of which will go to Utah.
Details
Affected consumers are eligible to request the following types of reimbursements from the settlement fund:
- Reimbursement for time spent trying to avoid or recover from identity theft (up to 20 total hours at $25 per hour)
- Reimbursement for money spent trying to avoid or recover from identity theft (such as costs for freezing your credit report, professional fees paid to address identity theft, postage, etc.)
- Up to $125 to reimburse for credit monitoring services purchased if you choose not to accept the offered 10 free years of credit monitoring service offered as a part of the settlement.
The settlement is being handled by a settlement administrator who is maintaining a website and a toll-free number; 1-833-759-2982. Eligible consumers can submit claims at the settlement website.
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